The FIM Program helps communities protect lives and property by providing tools and information to help them understand local flood risksv

Science Center Objects

The USGS Northeast Region has been an active and competent force in flood-science through (1) maintenance of our streamgaging network to provide timely and accurate data to the National Weather Service, other federal (USACE and FEMA) and state agencies (Emergency Management Agencies), and the public in times of flood emergencies; (2) documentation of major floods; (3) involvement in the USGS Flood Inundation Mapping (FIM) program; (4) research on stream and river flood hydrology and modeling; and (5) development of statistical hydrologic documentation tools. The Northeast Region Flood Science Capability Team will play a leadership role in flood sciences by coordinating, enhancing, and promoting flood-science programs, both riverine and coastal, within the Northeast Region, and working with others from other regions and from other agencies or universities to enhance and develop flood science programs and capabilities in support of USGS national and regional goals.

The Northeast Region Flood Science Capability Team will advance the Northeast Region as a leader in flood-science and decision support programs. The Team will be a resource to assist the Region and its Science Centers to develop and maintain flood-science programs. Specific areas for technical collaboration will include:

Flood Inundation Mapping (FIM) and flood vulnerability modeling

Major flood response, including rapid deployment and post-flood documentation activities

Fluvial erosion hazards (FEH)

Effects of floods on ecosystems

Statistical hydrology and flood prediction in a future of non-stationarity

Indirect measurements of discharge

Data analyses (peak flows and flood frequencies)

Streamgage-network evaluation

MAJOR OBJECTIVES

Major objectives for the Northeast Region Flood Science Capability Team will include:

Develop technical support material, such as training seminars for Northeast Region technical staff

Build and maintain flood-science program development material for Northeast Region WSCs and assist the Northeast Region Science Advisors with regional program development through technical support

Work with Northeast Region scientists to develop a technical vision for new flood-science work, such as (1) small watershed flood warning and forecast support for the National Weather Service, (2) Region flood “rapid response teams,” and (3) new tools for fluvial erosion hazards; and to integrate flood-science programs into other agency programs, such as FEMA’s RiskMap

Interface with USGS Flood Science Teams in the other Regions to draw upon their expertise and foster information exchange

Support the Integrated Water Resources Science and Services (IWRSS)

Flood Inundation Mapping (FIM) Program and assist the Office of Surface Water by providing technical reviews and testing of new flood-mapping templates, tools, methods, and/or products

Investigations of coastal change at Fire Island, New York (N.Y.), sought to characterize sediment budgets and determine geologic framework controls on coastal processes. Nearshore sediment thickness is critical for assessing coastal system sediment availability, but it is largely unquantified due to the difficulty of conducting geological or...

Hurricane Sandy was one of the most destructive hurricanes in US history, making landfall on the New Jersey coast on Oct 30, 2012. Storm impacts included several barrier island breaches, massive coastal erosion, and flooding. While changes to the subaerial landscape are relatively easily observed, storm-induced changes to the adjacent shoreface...

The salt marshes of Jamaica Bay, managed by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and the Gateway National Recreation Area of the National Park Service, serve as a recreational outlet for New York City residents, mitigate flooding, and provide habitat for critical wildlife species. Hurricanes and extra-tropical storms have been...

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center in St. Petersburg, Florida, conducted a bathymetric survey of Fire Island, New York, from October 5 to 10, 2014. The U.S. Geological Survey is involved in a post-Hurricane Sandy effort to map and monitor the morphologic evolution of the wilderness breach,...

Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center in St. Petersburg, Florida, collected bathymetric data along the upper shoreface and within the wilderness breach at Fire Island, New York, in June 2014. The U.S. Geological Survey is involved in a post-Hurricane Sandy effort to map and monitor the...

Digital flood-inundation maps for an approximately100-mile length of Lake Champlain in Addison, Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle Counties in Vermont and northern Clinton County in New York were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the International Joint Commission (IJC). The flood-inundationmaps, which can be...

Historically high flood levels were observed during flooding in Lake Champlain and the Richelieu River from late April through May 2011. Flooding was caused by record spring precipitation and snowmelt from the third highest cumulative snowfall year on record, which included a warm, saturated late spring snowpack. Flood stage was exceeded for a...

Streamflow data, water-surface-elevation profiles derived from a Hydrologic Engineering Center River Analysis System hydraulic model, and geographical information system digital elevation models were used to develop a set of 18 flood-inundation maps for an approximately 5-mile reach of the West Branch Susquehanna River near the Borough of Jersey...

Development of flood-inundation maps for the West Branch Susquehanna River near the Borough of Jersey Shore, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania; 2011; SIR; 2010-5057; Roland, Mark A. ; Hoffman, Scott A.

Information about active and recent events tracked by the USGS National Floods Specialist. Streamflow data is vitally important for our partner agencies to forecast flood magnitude and timing, operate flood control systems, and manage emergency response.

USGS Flood Inundation Maps, along with Internet information regarding current stage from the USGS streamgage, provide emergency management personnel and residents with information that is critical for flood-response activities, such as evacuations and road closures, as well as for post-flood recovery efforts.

The USGS Flood Event Viewer (FEV) is the public data discovery component of the Short-Term Network (STN) database. Data viewable and downloadable from this page are from the STN database. This application integrates with the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) database for display of time-series water data.

Floods are the most frequent of all catastrophic natural hazards, costing an average of $6 billion in losses annually and threatening lives and property in every state. The U.S. Geological Survey has made the National Flood Summary information from 1970-1998, including maps and data, available on the World Wide Web at http://ks.water.usgs.gov/Kansas/floodsummary.

Three to five inches of warm rain and significant snowmelt produced widespread flooding throughout northern New York from April 27-May 2. Most USGS streamgages in northern New York exceeded flood stage during this event, according to preliminary data released today by the U.S. Geological Survey.

February 11 marks the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the first two flood-warning gauges in New Jersey. The gauges were installed on the Passaic River at Chatham and the Ramapo River at Mahwah in response to damage in the Paterson area from flooding on March 2, 1902.

RESTON, Va. – 2011's epic floods, which devastated portions of the central, East, and northeastern U.S. and set numerous high water records in the process, are the topic of a free public lecture Wednesday, August 1, at 7:00 p.m. at the U.S. Geological Survey National Center in Reston, Va.

The unsaturated zone is the area below the surface of the ground but above the groundwater table. In other words, it’s the area that is comparatively drier than aquifers, with both water and air in the pore space between rock and soil.

Record rainfall totals between 10 and 15 inches fell in some areas in northeastern Massachusetts, and 3 to 8 inches fell in most other areas of Massachusetts between May 12 and 16. This rainfall caused most rivers in northeastern Massachusetts to reach record-high and near-record-high flows that are estimated to occur about once every 40-150 years (see table)